(Editor's note: The following is an excerpt from Frederick Schiller's essay "On the Sublime".)

"Man is never obliged to say, I mustómust," says the Jew Nathan [Lessing's play, "Nathan the Wise," act i. scene 3.] to the dervish; and this expression is true in a wider sense than man might be tempted to suppose. The will is the specific character of man, and reason itself is only the eternal rule of his will. All nature acts reasonably;...